W(h)ither the whites?

While 1994’s democratic transition has seen white people mostly leaving the civil service, the flip side is that many of them were driven into entrepreneurial activity, which has played a part in making white people relatively better off today than they were 20 years ago. In this file photo, lnx Pastry chef David Adriaan van der Merwe and his business partner, Kim Gouws, show off an array of chocolate delicacies at their White Lies coffee shop. Picture: Lucky Nxumalo/City Press

The 1994 transition liberated black South Africans from oppression, but also liberated whites, writes Frans Cronje.

Many whites argue they had a tough time after the 1994 transition, as equity and empowerment policies ensured economic opportunities were closed off to them.

Others argue that poverty and unemployment figures have risen sharply within the white population.

The SA Institute of Race Relations has published data that shows the truth is very different.

Following the transition, 75% of whites in the country had a matric qualification and just 10% had any higher education.

But by 2012, almost all white children were passing matric while 60% of those aged 20 to 24 were enrolled for higher education.

The comparative figures are that fewer than 50% of black children are going on to pass matric and only 14% of those aged 20 to 24 are currently enrolled for higher education.

This despite the fact that the white share of total tertiary enrolment has dropped from roughly 40% to 20% since 1994, while the black share has increased to 65%.

Between 1994 and 2012, the rate of unemployment among white people increased from 3% to 5.7%.

While this is a significant increase, the actual rate remains remarkably low by national standards. For example, in 2012, 29% of black South Africans were unemployed. Black people were therefore five times more likely to be unemployed.

The white unemployment rate was low, even when compared to a host of international benchmarks. In the US, for example, the rate in 2012 was 7.6%, in Britain 7.9% and in Canada 7.2%.

At first glance, these low levels of white unemployment stand at odds with the white exodus from the civil service and the shifting employment equity profiles of large corporations.

This paradox is best explained by the renowned historian, Professor Hermann Giliomee, who notes in his book, The Afrikaners: “In 1994, 75% of the white population earning over R500 000 per year were formally employed, receiving salaries and bonuses.

“By 2009, this figure had been completely reversed and 75% of whites in this income category were self-employed, either as owners of a business or as consultants or agents.”

The point of whites turning to entrepreneurship can be further reinforced by data that suggests that, while a black university graduate is more likely than a white graduate to find a job within 12 months of graduation, white graduates are four times more likely to start and operate businesses.

It is important to note, however, that only 10% of white adults fell into the R500 000-plus-and-above income bracket in 2009, while 50% were estimated to receive an income of less than R100 000 annually.

With increasing levels of education, high levels of entrepreneurship, and low levels of unemployment, it must follow that white poverty levels are low. South Africa has no official poverty line.

We therefore take a monthly household-income level of less than R5 000 as a benchmark of relative poverty. Using this benchmark, the proportion of white South Africans living in poverty declined from approximately 2% in 1994 to less than 1% in 2012.

The figures for black South Africans were significantly higher, having declined from about 50% in 1994 to 45% by 2012.

This despite the fact that the roll-out of taxpayer-funded welfare grants to more than 15 million mainly black South Africans saw the extent of desperate poverty, measured at $2 (R18.50) a day, decline from a peak of 17% in 2002 to 5% in 2010.

With such high education, employment and poverty differentials evident, high income differentials must be expected.

The most striking way to point out such inequality is to measure how many cents a black South African is likely to receive in income for every rand received by his white compatriot.

In 1994, on a per capita basis, black South Africans could expect to receive approximately 12 cents for every rand received by a white South African. In 2012, almost 20 years into our democracy, black South Africans were receiving only 13 cents for every rand received by white people.

Here it must be explained that the key driver of such continued inequality is not white wealth but, rather, abysmal education and labour-market outcomes for black South Africans.

We estimate that, on current trends, only 40% of black South African children are set to pass matric, and only 4% are set to pass maths in matric.

Likewise, the labour market absorption rate, which measures what share of the working-age population is employed, has fallen sharply for black South Africans since 1994 and now sits at just 36%.

The indicators cited in this article force two new conclusions about the white experience since democracy.

Firstly, whites have seen their education profile improve rapidly since apartheid ended and are today four times more likely to be in higher education than their black compatriots, who receive an appallingly poor standard of schooling.

Secondly, employment equity and empowerment policies have not driven whites into unemployment or poverty on a significant scale. Whites resident in South Africa are more likely to be employed than residents of the world’s leading economies.

While history will record that the 1994 transition liberated blacks from oppression, it is an important footnote of history that whites were also liberated.

They were liberated, first, from the guilt and pariah status that had been attached to their support and enforcement of apartheid.

They were freed from the failing economy they had brought about in which low growth was ironically curtailing improvements in their own living standards.

They were also unburdened from any sense that the state would look after their interests.

Herein lies one of the great paradoxes to emerge from the 1994 transition: as the focus of government policy turned to drive black economic advancement, so the whites were driven into entrepreneurship, which today explains their continued relative economic prosperity.

» Cronje is deputy chief executive of the SA Institute of Race Relations

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Comments

Does this mean – whites will continue to build the economy by creating self employment and new business and thus will continue being the employers of the present and the future?

The rest will continue to blame apartheid and whites for their inability to create their own wealth?

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

“Does this mean – whites will continue to build the economy by creating self employment and new business and thus will continue being the employers of the present and the future?” Who are you expecting to respond to your stupid question?

“The rest will continue to blame apartheid and whites for their inability to create their own wealth?” So Indians, Coloureds and Blacks will continue to blame apartheid? You have never seen black, indian and coloured lawyers, doctors, etc? Do you live in ZoOrania?

Zambuck

Laywers and doctors do not employ the workers. You need business people with entrepreneurial leadership who will create jobs. I’m afraid doctors and lawyers just dont meet that criteria. Todd Warren a contributor to the Forbes magazine mentions in an article that one of the 5 essential qualities of such leadership is “Knowing and taking advantage of your unfair advantages.” A cooking analogy explains the concept—you can cook from a recipe by buying the ingredients and making the dish; or you can cook by looking at what you have in the cupboard and determining what can be made with what you have.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Read my response above. Do you go to consult with any doctor or lawyer? I don’t think so. Because if you do, you will be welcomed by someone at reception. That is a “worker.” If you know such people by other names, please tell me what those other names are

Zambuck

Themba take a chill pill dude. Stop insulting people and argue the points. Yes, doctors and lawyers create some jobs but its not on the same scale as say for instance a manufacturer who operates a factory. Not only is he creating direct jobs but is also assisting in job creation in all the peripheries to his business i.e. his suppliers and so on. The scale of job creation in the manufacturing sector is far bigger than that of the services sector(doctors and lawyers). Go on, now call me a racist for pointing out the obvious.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

So the debate has now moved on to the “scale”. I am just glad that at least you don’t dispute that blacks, indians and coloured create jobs too.
Now where is that chill pill …

Zambuck

It’s like arguing with a brick wall, or even better, a teenager who know everything. Eishhhh…. I give up, you win. Go away now.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

So you are used to spending time arguing with brickwalls? What kind of a moron are you?

Zambuck

What part of ‘go away now’ don’t you understand idiot! I tried to have a decent discussion with you but it seems you’re intent on not wanting to listen and passing personal insults. HUGE chip on your shoulder.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

I am just payin you back in kind, moron. You go away

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

You started with the insults. You are these bullies who can dish it but cannot take it. If you want to trade insults, you’ve come to the right person.

Zambuck

How mature you are. Go back on my posts and show me where I insulted you. But hey I guess you’re just symptomatic of the society you live in, no valid counterpoint or argument so just blame someone else or resort to insults. Grow up man and start behaving like an adult. Thats assuming you are one because up to this point you’ve given me no reason to believe you’re any older than 12.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

“It’s like arguing with a brick wall …” Is that a compliment in your little racist cocoon in which you live? Firstly you appoint yourself as grumpy51′s spokesperson and order me to stop insulting him, but don’t give him the same advice because he is the same colour as you presumably. When I tell you he insulted black people and I am merely giving him a taste of his own medicine, you imply that because you, by your own words, argue with brickwalls, engaging me reminds you of that favorite pastime of yours. Now you tell me to grow up. Well, take your own advice s-ole, and while at it, remember to also take the logout of your eyes.

Zambuck

Incoherent childish drivel. I’m done with you. Best you give your mother’s computer back to her when you’re done playing with it and hope she doesn’t find out what damage you’ve done to it!!

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

See, why don’t you respond tomwhatni have said instead of now use my mother’s name in vain. Typical trailer trash. You insult others but because this is normal in trailer community in which you were raised, you nothing wrong with it, but everything wrong with being made to taste your own medicine.

You must your grandmother to have an enema inserted through your ears and out your rectum to cleanse you of all the racism garbage poisoning your system and making it so painful for you to use your brain, that is it has shrunk from alcohol abuse which is the sport trailer residents like you engage in routinely

SickDemocraticSA

It is a general problem in South Africa. Lots of talking and no action. Thick as bricks.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

Speak for yourself Mr. Being as thick as a brick does not entitle to assume everyone else is, unless you are some prophet or sangoma who “sees” what everyone is doing or not doing

gumpy51

These are medical and legal professionals – they neither create wealth or employment.
The author of the above article may well wish to respond to what is a extremely relevant question.
Your ability to understand what appears here on these pages is appalling as is your arrogance.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Your racist blinkers obviously prevent you from seeing what’s right in front of your eyes. Medical doctors and lawyers do not work on their own. They need receptionists, nurses, messengers, paralegals etc. Those are people they employ and help them to feed their families. One doctor in the East Rand opened up an entire clinic and had about 30 professional nurses on his payroll. They also create their wealth in the same way. You need to starve yourself at least for a month to cleanse yourself off all the racism that was fed to you throughout your life, and which is poisoning your your system.

I also don’t don’t think the author is going to respond to your stupidity. But don’t take my word for it. Keep watching whether the author has time to babysit stupid racists.

gumpy51

When you look into the mirror – that image staring back at you.

That’s the racist, commenting on these pages.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Bwahahahahahahaha … you are truly hilarious. 10/10 for a really nice try gRumpy

Krok O’dile

Why do you waste useful time trying to explain the obvious to these people? They have stones where others have brains.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Your racist blinkers obviously prevent you from seeing what’s right in front of your eyes. Medical doctors and lawyers do not work on their own. They need receptionists, nurses, messengers, paralegals etc. Those are people they employ and help them to feed their families. One doctor in the East Rand opened up an entire clinic and had about 30 professional nurses on his payroll. They also create their wealth in the same way. You need to starve yourself at least for a month to cleanse yourself off all the racism that was fed to you throughout your life, and which is poisoning your your system.

I also don’t don’t think the author is going to respond to your stupidity. But don’t take my word for it. Keep watching whether the author has time to babysit stupid racists.

Matthew Whitwam

The article does not specify the professions. Tertiary institutions provide education in various fields, from accounting to zoology.
Furthermore, while i do not recall the specifics, I have seen studies showing that possession of a tertiary qualification appears to be a contributing factor for entrepreneurial success in this country, even if the business venture in question does not relate to the qualification. I think the most important thing to take away from this article, regardless of each of our subjective experiences, is:
“Here
it must be explained that the key driver of such continued inequality is not
white wealth but, rather, abysmal education and labour-market outcomes for
black South Africans.”
The answer to reducing poverty and inequality clearly starts with education. Had this fact been realised in 1994, we would be seeing very different statistics today. Government needs to be held to account on this, before another 19 years go by without this horrific circumstance being rectified.

gumpy51

Having operated my own business for almost thirty years – I can safely say that the biggest misconception is that education = employment.

Education does not nessarily create employment or the desire to create employment.
The Germans have some very interesting ideas on this subject.
The vision and desire to create and build business comes from a very different place.

Guest

Gotta agree with you… however, what he says is true; i.e. that poor blacks, indians(if there is such a thing) ect will blame apartheid of the past. What he fails to mention, however, is that poor whites will do the same thing i.e. blame the “black government” of the present.

Unfortunately, if you want a living, you’ll have to MAKE a living, no matter what your race. Being “previously disadvantaged” or “currently disadvantaged” only provides us with opportunity to prove them (white or black) wrong and excel despite personal adversity.

I must admit, as a side note, it is nice to see people of different races debating a subject rationally and as equals, truly brings warmth to my hart and makes me a proud South African.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003836700568 Tums Down

Yes, I reckon whites will always prosper..

- As for the rest (or most of us), its a slow process… We’re still at the foot of the hirarchy, still trying to secure sustainable food income for ourselves and our extended families..

Krok O’dile

They scored both before and after 94, yet they’re the most vocal opponents of the new dispensation. Go figure.

Zambuck

White people do not oppose the dispensation(and not all of them do) because they are being “disadvataged” by it but rather because they are sick and tired of the ineptitude, the inability to govern, the ongoing constant corruption and thievery, the criminal nature of those in charge, the arrogance, always being expected to pay their taxes yet get NOTHING in return, being blamed for everything that goes wrong in the country, the intimidation and brutality of the police force, the shockingly low levels of service delivery and so on and on we can go. But of course none of this has anything to do with their opposition to those in government; rather its just white people whineing because they can. You have to start facing facts, yes they “scored” before ’94 because of the advantages they had. But think about this, in the face of adversity post ’94 they still scored. Maybe it has something to do with buckling down and getting to work as oppossed to expecting handouts. You do the sums……oh sorry i forget, your new education system doesn’t prepare you to do sums. Nevermind!

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

You will be suprised how many black, indian and coloured people are also sickened and getting tired of the ineptitude, the inability to govern, the ongoing constant corruption and thievery, the criminal nature of those in charge, the arrogance, always being expected to pay their taxes yet get NOTHING in return … That is why you now have COPE, Agang, as many of them look for alternatives to the ANC. Some have even crossed the bridge to the DA. Yes, that is very true. My point is, let us stop raising race. It’s divisive and feeds into the current racist politics of the ruling party and militates against building the alternative that could take over, unless that is our intention anyway, to entrench divide and allow the ANC more years to misrule our country for which we will ALL suffer the consequences, regardless of who voted them in power

Krok O’dile

There is this thing called emigration. It’s not like you have nowhere to go.

Zambuck

Why should I have to leave my country of birth where my forefathers came to more than 300 years ago?? Certainly not for any of the above reasons. This country is mine as much as it is anyone else’s who lays claim to it!! And that aside, it’s not as if the majority of whites can just pack up and leave, there are financial implications. Everybody does not have the means to leave I can assure you. If that were the case my friend you’d see far less whites here. They’d be off in a flash to a country that will appreciate their skills and reward them accordingly. And of course have the added benefit of accountability from their governments!!

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

“Financial implications”? You are probably these apartheid idiots who never saved during apartheid when your skin color was a passport to all sorts of privileges. Now you don’t have money because you never thought the apartheid goose that laid the golden eggs will exist forever. Now we are stuck with you because by your own admission, you are too poor to leave.

How about emigrating to that paradise called ZoOrania? Don’t tell me you are too poor to afford taxi fare to that paradise

Zambuck

Just goes to show how bigoted and prejudiced you are. I happen to live and work in a country far removed from yours. I am here because my work brings me here and not because I left due to the circumstances there. So my friend before making your racist comments you should think. Perhaps even a little more about my skin colour too…;)

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

One minute you don’t have money to bugger off. The next minute you work in far removed country. You sound confused. I think you should sleep off the confusion “my friend.”

Zambuck

Oh my word!! I never said IIIIIIIII dont have money, quite the contrary. I was saying MOST WHITE PEOPLE don’t have the kind of money to relocate. Being able to read is one thing but actually being able to comprehend what one reads is another story altogether. I gues they don’t teach you that either in your bright shiny new education system huh.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

You are beginning to sound like your former goat herder President. “I never said … I was saying …” You forgot to add “I was misquoted.”

Btw, you have worn me down with your stupidity. Good nite “my friend” :

Ron Wells

Zambuck, don’t waste your time with this cretinous clown. His stupidity will wear you down and then he will win on experience. He should be mayor somewhere.

Zambuck

Yes, thanks Ron. I realised I was getting sucked in by the dumbness.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Yes, Ron, tell him in your trailer trash way to give up now

Matthew Whitwam

Yeah, i have to admit i didn’t save much during apartheid… of course i was only 11 when we held the ’94 elections, but yeah, I could totally have fled the country if I’d put all my apartheid earnings in a savings account…

Matthew Whitwam

I have nowhere to go… emigration isn’t something one just does on a whim, with nothing but the clothes on your back.

http://www.praag.co.za/ Dan Roodt

I would treat these statistics with a great deal of caution. Many whites are not on the unemployment statistics as they do not claim benefits from the government. Driving around many white areas, you notice their old, decrepit cars, lack of maintenance to their properties and other signs of economic distress.

Go to any five-star hotel now and you will find blacks sitting around in designer clothes. The only whites there are foreign tourists. Most cars costing R1 million and more that I see every day in Johannesburg are owned by blacks, not whites. Blacks get all the lucrative corporate directorships and make easy money as “tenderpreneurs” to the state and municipalities.

I know of thousands of whites who literally had to leave the country to find jobs, in the Middle and Far East where they do dysmal work as part-time English teachers or pack groceries in Australian supermarkets.

Many small businesses started by whites have failed, not least because of the racial laws and regulations imposed by government and the corporate sector. The corporate sector – banks and large companies – are now arguably more anti-white than government. They do not trade with white-owned businesses and generally sue or harass small businesses at the drop of a hat. Many whites have lost their homes which the banks require them to pledge as collateral for a simple overdraft for their
small businesses.

More whites now live in so-called “informal housing” than at any time since the Great Depression. Solidarity estimates that up to 800 000 whites – educated, literate and previously taxpayers – now live in squatter camps and other “informal areas” such as the one underneath.

We are witnessing the greatest social-engineering programme whereby one race is economically subjugated to another that this country and perhaps the world has ever seen.

The very notion that whites could be “liberated” by such an unfair and racist system is so fundamentally cynical that it has an Orwellian ring to it. But that is why the mainstream media no longer has any credibility among middle-class whites.

The South African media are loyal to foreign and corporate interests who see South African whites as an unwanted presence in the country, preventing them from bribing their way into looting most of the remaining assets in South Africa. That is why the SA mass media are constantly attacking whites, accusing them of racism, “apartheid privilege”, and the like. White males even get blamed for the intense crime and lawlessness in the country! Every white person knows that 99% of the violence is committed by other races, yet we are blamed for everything. If all else fails, there is always ever-increasing “the legacy of apartheid” to blame.

What I find amazing is that Frans Cronjé published two contradictory articles today, one in Rapport and this one in City Press
with completely contradictory messages. The one in Rapport, written in Afrikaans and therefore intended for a mainly white audience, shows how 500 000 middle-class taxpayers essentially contribute 50% of all personal taxes in South Africa. White readers of that article would be understandably outraged that, while still contributing a large share of the country’s taxes, they are treated as second-class citizens.

English in South Africa is increasingly the language of blacks and the internationalist whites who are hostile to Afrikaners and the white middle class, for reasons explained in the paragraph above, namely that their ownership of land and role in the judiciary and the accounting profession prevent the wholesale looting of our country. Even though looting is already taking place, there is still some semblance of legality left. Clearly, this has to go.

This article in English about whites is therefore intended for a black and foreign audience, to convince them that South African whites “have never had it so good”. Understandably the very real hostility felt for those dastardly Nazis and perpetrators of a “crime against humanity” will only rise upon reading this article. It will undermine any inchoate sympathy whites enjoy with their less brainwashed brethren in the West and Europe.

The most absurd sentence of all is the following: “(Whites) were liberated, first, from the guilt and pariah status that had been attached to their support and enforcement of apartheid.”

On the contrary, South African whites are now more hated and stigmatised than ever! Over the past twenty years the SABC and the mainstream media have played their quasi-communist propaganda about white evil and viciousness over and over in South Africa. Most of the time this propaganda is literally the work of unreconstructed communists who occupy powerful positions in South Africa, being the “white face” of the ANC government, the SABC and other state agencies. The British media, including the BBC, see us whites as free game now that we are utterly without any political power and lack any form of state support. More
unfair and one-sided news stories have been published and broadcast about us since 1994 than ever before, barring perhaps the 1890s when the Uitlander press and the London newspapers were publishing war propaganda about the Boer republics.

As for white guilt, there is a whole industry meant to inculcate it into us, almost from birth. At school our children are exposed to compulsory subjects such as “Life Orientation” containing political propaganda of the worst kind, meant to persuade them that their parents were all war criminals killing thousands, if not millions, of blacks. In reality, of course, only 500 blacks died at the hands of the SA police from 1948 to 1994, fewer than die every year as a result of police brutality under black rule! However, the foreign whites and media do not write about police brutality anymore because it is now committed by blacks and therefore of no interest.

More than 80 000 whites have been murdered since 1994 and up to a million white women have been raped. Four thousand farmers, their wives and children have been killed, many of them spending their last hours under dehumanising torture.

While all this is going on in the ghoulish present, not a week goes by without newspapers and radio programmes calling for whites to “repent about apartheid”, surrender the meagre assets that they still control or simply leave the country as they “have outstayed their welcome”. People are constantly telling me to “go back to Europe” or “get lost”, even though my forebears came here in the early 1700s.

Apart from racial quotas in education that prevent whites from obtaining a tertiary education, especially in medicine and other fields, an aging white population now endures a third-world system of medical care. Prior to 1994, whites had one of the best healthcare systems in the world, with both a private and a well-managed public hospital system.

Corruption and mismanagement have reduced the public system to a shambles while the costs of private healthcare have gone through the roof. Only the corporate elite can now afford private healthcare. Whites are almost banned from studying medicine by the universities so that their parents and grandparents may just die from neglect in the state hospital system.

Despite being well-educated and hard-working, affirmative action and so-called BEE (black-economic empowerment) have reduced most South African whites to poverty. Their mean income per capita is far less than the minimum wage in many European countries. This small income gets taxed to the maximum to fund the megalomaniac dreams of this make-believe government whose only interest is in seeking international prestige while it cannot even mend our roads, nor deliver school books on time.

This is Frans Cronjé’s “white paradise”!

Stefan

I stopped reading at “Go to any five-star hotel now and you will find blacks sitting around in designer clothes. The only whites there are foreign tourists”. I can just picture Dan Roodt, hiding in the lobby ferns dressed in his khaki-pakkie making detailed notes of the coming and goings of Sandton Sun hotel guests.

RobertLaine

Dan, you sound like a bitter old fart longing for the old days. Neither government nor big business is going to save us. I prefer to make my own work. I know this is easier said than done, maar jy’s a boer so maak a plan.

Krok O’dile

I have never read a more self-pitying piece of reflection. What do you want to do now that you have no more “state support”? Sit on the pavement and cry?

Krok O’dile

“More than a million white women were raped”. That means 1/4 of all white women in this country were raped. This is complete bullshit.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Don’t take Dan Roodt seriously. Only the AWB, Suidlanders, Witwolwe, Ystergarde, and other rightwing lunatics who live in self-imposed mental asylums take him seriously, but only after a klippies and coke have had its effects.

http://www.facebook.com/Mzwa.Advice Mzwa Murcielago Alhi-dhiAdvice

I love how white people claim poverty when they can’t pay for their PVR, or ” their old, decrepit cars, lack of maintenance to their properties. I swear some of them think poverty or disadvantage is a lie, or that its made up. Even a white hobo(either due to financial reasons that are genuine, or because of bad financial management or drug abuse) is still in a much worse condition then so many black people who are so poor, and illiterate, they can’t even get welfare. Really your version of poor whites can’t even dare be compared, and if you must, you can’t compare them to the very few fortunate black people

http://www.facebook.com/jenny.nel.100 Jenny Nel

Why should there be any poverty in our country at all? If the ruling party were not stealing over R1 billion a year (that we know of), how much good could have been done? Why should any old person have to scratch for a living? Why should any child, of any colour, be denied the opportunity to obtain a tertiary education? Instead of comparing levels of poverty here (my poverty is worse than your poverty blah blah blah), why are we not up in arms about the shocking level of unemployment? about the disgraceful level of violent crime against women and children? about the lack of service delivery? about the endless looting of the state coffers by greedy, incompetent cadres? The anc’s one success is the manner in which they manage to turn the spotlight from their own spectacular failure while they fuel the flames of racial tension – which works very much in their favour. We are ALL poorer since the anc took over – unless, of course, we are politically connected in which case the wealth is positively vulgar (ask khulubuse – zuma’s corpulent nephew). The destruction of our country by the ruling party is dragging us ALL into the dirt, and its time we put aside our differences and stood united against the anc’s blatant bending of the law, lies, theft. There is no excuse for the terrible poverty we see around us all the time. There is enough money to ensure that our aged are cared for, that our health system is run efficiently and effectively, that our environment is preserved, but this money is being poured into inkandlas, SABCs, SAAs, Eskom, pockets of selebis, mcbrides, parties and luxury vehicles for the cadres. That is OUR money, and we have the right to demand that we are not ALL treated like second class citizens in OUR own country.

http://www.facebook.com/Mzwa.Advice Mzwa Murcielago Alhi-dhiAdvice

The reason why they succeed at using racial tension is simply because of ignorance, from all sides. For example, you want to group us together, as if we face a similar struggle. Now being the smart person you are, putting emotion aside, I am sure you know that we are not in the same boat. I know you know that we are not poorer as blacks since ANC took over. How is that even possible. Now when we complain, we must be realistic. Even first world countries have poverty, they have their old people poor. I have my anger with the ANC, but we will never be united in voice because people become too sensational. You cant prove our situation is worse as blacks. You want us to now thank the Apartheid government? Should we say they did a better job? I respect your views, you make points worth noting, but I must make my disagreements

Adarsh Prabhu

I think Elizabeth’s comment was a good summary of public opinion in South Africa.

http://twitter.com/carlpiek Carl Judas Piek

So true. However anyone who complains about being unemployed has clearly never gone hungry enough to become an entrepreneur.

http://www.facebook.com/Mzwa.Advice Mzwa Murcielago Alhi-dhiAdvice

because everyone has been EQUALLY given the opportunity to become an entrepreneur. But white people can be so niave. I promise you, if everyone removed sensationalism, our country would go far

http://twitter.com/Sinudeity Sinudeity

Another white moron (apartheid generation) who wants me (post-apartheid generation) to feel guilty about being who I am. He wants me to be reminded daily, about his apartheid.

http://www.facebook.com/brett.nortje Brett Nortje

I have never really considered Frans to be hopelessly PC but it is astonishing that he does not mention – even once – that the black population has almost doubled since 1994.

http://www.facebook.com/victor.rapulane Makate Rapulana

So the ANC liberated whites too.. it is time they show their gratitude.

Zambuck

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.At least you have a sense of humour whether you know it or not!!

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

You seem to have forgotten your per-1994 pariah status. You could not even go and play rugby internationally. The entire world was isolating you apartheid bigots. Now you can travel around the world and also play rugby, thanks to the ANC.

Zambuck

Go play with an abacus or better yet, go look up the meaning of some words in the dictionary. Oh wait, silly me, your wonderful education system doesn’t teach what either of these things are. Nevermind.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

I see you finally admit to being “silly.” I would have been happier had you owned up to being a moron and used “oh moronic me” instead.

How old are you again, only 9? Go to your room and never come out until your gandmother has put that enema in your ears and out your rectum, okay … Lol

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

I see you finally admit to being “silly,” as in lacking common sense. That’s very good, although I think you should have owned up to being a chief moron. But I’ll settle for “silly.” LMAO

Ron Wells

Themba, you appear to have an unusual amount of time to spend spewing your drivel on this forum. Your replies are not only childish but bordering on the Neanderthal, is there a village somewhere devoid of an idiot? Do you work for Jo’burg City Power in their billing department? Telkom, SAA, (the list of dysfunctional departments run by ANC Cadres / Morons like you is like dividing 22 by 7… Endless)
Zambuck is way out of your league,as your IQ appears to be at room temperature, in winter, at midnight.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Ron, you also seem to have time to come here and spew rubbish. No Boeremagmampara, I don’t work for the ANC or the government. In fact, I detest them probably more than you because they give racist morons like you an opportunity to attack any black person merely because he is black and therefore must be some ANC or government lackey.
Do something more meaningful, like stop playing psychic and revive your AWB, Ystergarde, Witwolve, Suidlanders or whatever you lunatics choose to call yourself after a bottle of brandy and coke and get on with it. r-sole

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

By the way, I will be going into a meeting for the better part of today. Don’t assume you have shut me down if you don’t see any responses. I am determined to show you that you are not going to carry on as you did during apartheid. Apartheid is over, so is your power over lack people, r-soles

cleusa vicente

Zambuck if you were here in England you would be in jail…..period

Zambuck

…and my crime would be????

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

Your crime will be stupidity … Lol

Zambuck

You’d be front and centre of that qeue my friend. Just be thankful it’s not a crime to be dumb. You get a life sentence. Oh wait, crime pays in SA, you’d probably just be let out and celebrated as a national hero….LMFAO!!!

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.98 Themba Thwala

“My friend,” I am tired of laughing. My cheeks and ribs are sore. Thanks for the entertainment. Night …

Zambuck

Godnight Themba, I hope you know how to sleep.

cleusa vicente

Being a fucking racist.

Zambuck

Can you please show me which comment of mine is racist? It’s the usual old worn out ad nauseum use of the race card. As soon as you have a valid point which can’t be countered you automatically become a racist. Laughable!!

Ron Wells

With a name like cleusa vicente, you should have been deported from the UK a long time ago. There again, being on benefits and living off the UK taxpayer is SO much better than working?

cleusa vicente

For your stupidity I am here for being married to an English man. I am retired now but worked all my life. Can you say the same about you? And for your information this is the last time I post anything anyway because your likes are too much crap. I have a family to enjoy and do not think you have any.And also I am a British citizen a long time ago and all my children were born English.We are all taxpayer with proud and we do not mind a bit to pay our taxes to keep our country the way it is.Bye,Bye loser

http://www.facebook.com/brett.nortje Brett Nortje

And that privilege cost only 68 000 white lives, Wow! Aren’t we lucky?

Mfwetu

Funny that – I never understood it but it was a case of whites isolating whites – we blacks had very little influence over it at the time- unlike the stories you get told now.

Hummer Hlophe

dude you have to decide whether you are black or white,lol

Mfwetu

No I don’t – I am a South African and that is enough

Hummer Hlophe

ok sharp sharp but stop pretending to be black

JustAnotherGirl

Lol

Katherine27

I think unemployment and poor education is unacceptable, period, regardless of the race it affects.

Also
these facts aren’t juxtaposed to SA’s demographics: of our 51 770 560
population (a/c Census 2011), 8.9% were white and 79.2% black which I
think would have added credence to the story.

And why were SA’s
unemployment rates compared with developed countries (with a majority of
whites in their populations) instead of other emerging countries with
similar demographics?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000315046473 Cg Tours

CLEUSA WAS HE also a foreigner? Send us some photos of your offspring – do they look like you(Oh dear) or like your husband? Or are they neither fish nor fowl? Your English certainly did not improve, irrespective of your British Passport? THAT says it all! Go and write your nonsense somewhere else.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000315046473 Cg Tours

Themba Twala, go and dig out the skins your forefathers word! I will go and enjoy the silver and porcelain and fine antiques that came WITH my Ancestors in 1632. Also read some of the Journals my great great great Grannie wrote and play some of the wonderful Mozart , Strauss etc, music sheets

they also brought along. Does your famiiy still have some heirlooms from your Ancestors? Do you have a family tree recorded and written in your traditional language by your Ancestors? We have !in French and many in Dutch and even in English, spanning hundreds of years even before our Ancestors arrived here. You must remember they came from Paris, Amsterdam, and Germany!- Those cities still have all their Palaces, boulevards, magnificent buildings from those days and Centuries before, still there ! even now in 2013! Show us yours?. Do not insult others as lunatics, boeremag or even the people of Orania. YOU must look into yourself and how far you have come! Amazing~! Wonder how? and who assisted and provided the basic civilization?. YOU should read the papers and look at YOUR RACE!
Who are the majority rapists, the murderers, hijackers,robbers in this Country? People from Orania?
Who burns,destroys,throw stone, litter ,breed children by different wives/fathers that they cannot support or feed? How many of your RACE do not even you who their fathers are? SO SIR!, YOU
should catch a serious wake up call of YOUR own history! Did the Tribes, murder, plunder,burn villages, fight each others, rape the women when they migrated down from Africa? Does it sound familiar to you? We know our roots! Do you?WE are not the Mamparras!.Trailer trash. We do not tell you have your Tribes were infested with syphillis, TB,LICE. malaria, children just having a life span of about 5. We know the stories handed down. We did not tell you some tribes smelt so bad that you could not have them near you. So bad they covered i flies! etc. So yes even soap and disinfectant came and fine Perfumes from Grasse and the lavender hills In France and even some top top Wines and Cognac! Go and THANK God, our ancestors did arrive. They could have left the tribes to just die out you know. SO you lot are also here because of MANY of the good Smaritans that came. Look at Biafra, look at Sudan, Look at the thousand of Ethiopia , Saudia Arabia is sending back?
Do you BLACK RACISTS HERE GET THE PICTURE OF YOUR FELLOW bLACKS IN aFRICA? wOULD YOU HAVE LIKED TO BE LIKE THAT. ? iF YOU DID NOT BREED LIKE FLIES AND HAD SMALLER FAMILIES WITHOUT YOUR DYSFUNCTIONAL CULTURE AND TRIBAL WAYS OF LIVING ETC, AND!!! A RESPONSIBLE MOTHER AND FATHER- you LOT COULD ALSO HAVE BEEN MUCH MUCH BETTER OFF !

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

CG Tours, what kind of a retard are you? I read only half of the first line. Take you head out of your ass and write something worth reading neh … Lol

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

I read the filthy vomit that came out your brain to the computer and could not even finish the first sentence. What kind of parents would bring such a scumbag as cgtours into the world?

JustAnotherGirl

I have no idea why you feel that a response is necessary. I’m quite certain no one even got past the first two sentences.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

You are quite certain based on what, your sixth sense? I have no way of knowing whether everyone read the whole vomit. I merely stated what happened min my case as the vomit was directed my way.

JustAnotherGirl

No, based on the fact that is hysterical and verging on psychotic.

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Thank you dudette, for the response and the comic relief

Mfwetu

Why is there so much silence about the fact that since the last Census to this latest one, there are over 1000 000 less whites in the country. These were all the people who had the skills we needed to build the economy and they have been forced by the new ANC’s racist ideology to leave the country and go where they can find work, instead of being encouraged to stay and help build South Africa’s ??

Hummer Hlophe

so? they left what must we do?beg them to come back

Mfwetu

Maybe you will have to one day

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

Dude, if you want to pass yourself as black, at least spell your name correctly. There’s no such word in any black language as “mfwetu”.

Mfwetu

Dude – Please don’t try to tell me how to spell. Perhaps if you applied what little brain you may have, you may realise that it might be due to the limitations of the name options available. Seriously, you’re such a little chop

http://www.facebook.com/themba.thwala.775 Themba Thwala

If uncovering your mask makes me a chop, so be it boet. At least I am not a confused impostor, unlike you know who … Lol

Charlotte Sutherland

I am deeply saddened by the vicious comments and lack of empathy in most of the comments to this piece. South Africa has a lot to offer, but the future depends on what we are teaching our children. What example are you guys setting with these selfish attitudes and insults, which are highly unlikely to bring about positive change? Let’s acknowledge the past and its wrongs and work together to make it better for everyone. Knock those chips off your shoulders and commit yourselves to a greater good – if not, why not?

Phehello

I pray for a day when all the bickering and exchange of insults shall come to an end and have all South Africans share a common purpose, which is, national prosperity.
A prosperous whiteman can afford all the security but still remains in worry of the blackman who because he has no food nor shelter has resorted to commiting crime. I agree, no amount of poverty or lack should force a person to commit crime, but the reality is that, it is happening.
Hence an employed SouthAfrican is good for himself and his super rich fellow citizen. The more we get people employed the better for the rich.

Apartheid is uncomfortable to many South Africans. That is partly why even whites dont want to hear it being used as an excuse anymore. The guilty are uncomfortable.
I was hoping that since apartheid was not born out of the current generation of whites, they would actually reject it fully and not seek to embrace it to such extents that they defend it. When will they accept that it’s not sustainable?
Now and again i experience snipets of a free South Africa when i meet a welcoming White South African, who treats me like a human being equal to them. I pray that we have this a the norm.